Can These Dead Bones Live?

Lord, do it for me O Lord, do it for me O Lord, if You don't do it It just won't be done So, Lord, do it for me Sometimes I get desperate and I say it like this, I say Lord, fix it for me Anybody know that only God can do it Oh-oh-oh, fix it for me Oh, thank You, Jesus Because, Lord, I have a problem That only You can solve So, Lord, do it for me Can y'all play that for me? Lord, do if for me Lord, I need You to do it right now I can't wait 'til tomorrow Do it for me, oh! Lord, if You don't do it It just won't be done So, Lord, do it for me (do it for me) Listen Lord, fix it for me Anybody know God can do it O Jesus, fix it for me (fix it for me) Ayy, Lord, I have a problem That only You can solve Ayy-ay, Lord, I need You to do it for me (do it for me) Everybody sing right now Say Lord (Lord) Do (do it for me) If you need God to do something Say Lord (O Lord) Do it (do it for me), do it Ayy, Lord (Lord, if You don't do it) Oh (it just won't be done) Somebody say, Lord (O Lord), ayy! (Do it for me) One more time, and I believe you know that Somebody say, Lord (Lord), we've come back in whole (do it for me) Come on, just wave your hands If you need God to do something, say it (O Lord), ooh, ooh (do it for me) Oh, do it, ayy, ay-ay-ay (Lord, if You don't do it) somebody need You It just won't (it just won't be done), ay Somebody need You to do it (O Lord), ayy-ay (do it for me) Now I just need everybody right here tonight to lift your hands If you need God to do something right now If you need God to do something right now Lift your hands Lord, I need You here I don't wanna wait 'til tomorrow, ayy-ay If You don't do it It just won't be done Y'all say, Lord (O Lord), please Jesus, do it (do it for me) I can't count on nobody else, I need You to do it Ayy, Lord (Lord), outrun everybody else, outrun everybody else (do it for me) Can you do it for my mama Come on, somebody say, Lord (O Lord) Can't nobody, can't nobody (do it for me) do me like this Ayy, yeah-yeah, ay Lord, if You (Lord, if You don't do it), ooh, ooh, ooh Ayy, it just won't (it just won't be done) Please, Jesus (O Lord), please, Jesus, do it (do it for me) Come on, clap your hands if you need God to do something right now Come on, say, "God, I need You to do it right now" Lord, I need You to do it right now Lord, ay Ay, do it

Honorifics:

Give Honor to Lord and Savior Jesus Christ first and foremost

To Pastor Moore and 1st Lady Moore

To all Ministerial Staff and their Spouses

To all Deacon’s and Trustee’s

To all Member’s and Friends

Also want to praise God for any visitor’s that may be in attendance

On this past Tuesday the Lord saw fit to allow me to see my 42nd birthday. As is my custom, I like to take some time to reflect on my life and thank God for where He has brought me from. As I thought back, there are some particular times, some formative moments, that I either remember or have been told about that came to mind as I reflected this year.

My mother reminds me often, as an encouragement, of how hard Satan tried to kill me before I could be born on the day of my birth. She believes, and I have accepted with humility, that God has a unique plan for my life that was greater than the cost of my life.

I remembered growing up in Florida, attending Church of God Pentecostal Way, and feeling like we attended church every day. Some of my classmates thought we were Jehovah’s Witness because we didn’t celebrate Christmas and Easter the way they did.

I remember moving to SC and attending this church with all of the kids whose names are on the bibles on the bookshelf in the hallway in the back. I remember some of the older folks saying “yeah, you Risa’s baby” and having no idea what they were talking about.

I thought about joining the military back in 2002 and how I deployed in 2005 and came close to coming home in a flag draped casket, but God! I thought about everything I went through to recover from everything I saw, and how that journey seems to be a lifelong one.

I remembered marrying my wife in 2010, and all of the adventures and misadventures we’ve gone on since then, and how it is nothing but Jesus Christ that has sustained us to this point.

Then, I thought about our daughter, Madison. Now, all you need is one halfway functional eyeball and you can tell that she shares no DNA with either of us, but that doesn’t matter to either of us, nor to any member of our family. Since the day she entered our home, she’s been loved. When we were told that she was officially going up for adoption, we simply told her worker to get us the necessary paperwork. The process had it’s twists and turns, but she is our daughter, blood or not, Ms. Madison Josielyn McCarter.

One thing that I’ve not mentioned, that I believe is central to who I am and who God has called me to be, is that I have a great passion for God’s people and His church. I’m talking about the institution and the individuals that fill the buildings. Since I got saved, and I’m talking about baptized in the water and filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues, in ‘07, I began to develop a desperate passion for the Lord’s church and His people. In ‘09 when I was licensed into ministry I became much more zealous and protective of the church and her people, becoming much like Peter, willing to swing a sword first, and talk later. And when I was ordained in 2014 as an Elder I felt I was ready to lead an invasion through the gates of hell itself, if it meant retrieving the lost and defending the kingdom. I’m pretty sure that I’m the reason for a significant portion of my dad’s hair loss. It couldn’t have been easy trying to maintain peace between me and the deacon board.

After just over 15 years in ministry, having served as a Youth Pastor twice, an Assistant Pastor, and having joined a friend in planting a church, I can honestly say that God has taken me on a journey I never saw coming and used it to temper me in ways I never expected, and has taught me what it means to love and serve His people.

Ezekiel 37:1–10 (NASB95)

1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.

2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry.

3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’

5 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life.

6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.

9 Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.” ’ ”

10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

The church in America is facing what some would call an existential crisis. The Evangelical church is tearing itself apart as some parts of it attempts to align itself with the false belief that this country was founded on Christian beliefs, and in some sort of knee-jerk reaction to a perceived loss of control they are pushing forward a hateful ideology that white nationalism and traditional American Christianity are meant to coexist within the same space. In the meantime, others within the Evangelical community are attempting to distance themselves from their far-right leaning brethren yet still maintaining a harsh stance toward people they view as sinful and willing to use the law to impose sanctions in an effort to force others to abide by rules they themselves struggle with. On the other side of the aisle, many black Christians are more liberal in both their politics and their theology, making admissions and excuses for sins that God has expressly forbidden, even going so far as to permit these things to take place in the church. There has been a movement within some churches to allow the church to mirror the society in which it stands under the guise of “making people comfortable”.

I just want to ask one simple question this morning. “Can these dead bones live again?”

With all of these inconsistencies going on in the church world, there are some very disturbing statistics that the church is faced with. Each year between 4,000 and 10,000 churches shutter their doors for the last time. It is estimated that this year, 2025, that 15,000 churches will close their doors for the last time. This is not by accident, but by design! Satan has invaded churches all across the nation and incited infighting, refocusing us fighting over petty matters so that we don’t see what is truly going on. We argue and fight over whether a woman can or cannot preach or hold positions of leadership within the church, instead of scrutinizing the kind of women God did and did not permit to lead. We bark at each other over which politician will provide us with the best support and protection for our children, but then we send our children out into the world with almost no understanding of the God we say we serve. Then, when they leave home barely armed with knowledge of who God is, they run into some agnostic or atheist who treats them as if they are intelligent, and asks them questions they can’t answer, and challenges their intellect with “deep thoughts”, and suddenly all of the doubts they were afraid to voice before have a simple answer; You were wrong.

Can these dead bones live again?

God asked Ezekiel if the dead bones in the vision could live again. It was not a rhetorical question. He wanted him to look at what he saw and to genuinely consider it. I’m asking us to do the same. Look around at what we see. Look at our families. Our extended families. Our community. Our church. Do we see any dead bones? If so, can these dead bones live again? Ezekiel was wise. His response was to respond that only God knew. God’s command was immediate and simple. Prophesy over the bones. Tell them to hear the word of the Lord. The word used here for “prophesy” means simply, “preach”. He told Ezekiel to preach and tell the bones that He would cause “breath to enter you that you may come to life” and that He would “put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive”. The word used for “breath” in Hebrew is ruah, which can also mean “Spirit”. The same word was used in Genesis 1:2 when referring to the Spirit of God that was hovering over the face of the waters. So when God told Ezekiel to preach to the bones, God was promising to put His “Spirit” in them to make them alive after He had covered them.

The church is meant to be the environment that provides space for God to cover the “bones” of those who enter in, but we can’t do that if we are divided. Just like the apostles on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1, every time we come here we ought to seek to be in one place, on one accord. No politics, no cliques, just brother’s and sister’s seeking to do the will of God. There are “dead bones” up and down Hwy 97, and for anybody that’s been paying attention to what has been going on, time is winding up.

I believe that Ezekiel wasn’t just content to accept what he had seen and move on, because in v. 10 it says

New American Standard Bible (1995) Chapter 37

10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Time may be short, but there are souls on the line. Can these dead bones live again? Lord, only you know. But I’ll do anything you require of me to see them come back to life.